Souvlaki Authentic Greek Cuisine

I'm always happy to explore food options in Hampden, so when we were invited to a tasting at Souvlaki, we jumped on it.

I had passed by the place a few times and even wrote a few sentences about it in an article for the City Walker App blog, but had never eaten there. (It's very easy to get stuck going to the same three favorite place over and over.) I knew Souvlaki was of the fast-casual, counter-service, genre, and that I could pick a protein, side, and sauce to make up a platter. That seemed the best option for a tasting, actually, so that's what both Mr Minx and I did.

But first, we started with the zucchini balls. Kolokythokeftedes. Say that five times fast. (Say that one time slowly and I'll be impressed.) Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, they were lovely whether or not they got a dunk in the accompanying tzatziki.

Next time, I want to try the slightly easier to pronounce pantzarokeftedes, or beet balls.

For my entree, I had the stuffed bifteki (spiced beef patties stuffed with kaseri cheese) with a yee salad (arugula, tomatoes, ntakos crumb, manoyri cheese, balsamic cream, evoo) and melitzanosalata (roasted eggplant). The beef was tender and super-flavorful, nicely seasoned, with just enough cheesy ooze. It was great wrapped in the pita and topped with some of the eggplant and a bit of the tzatziki left over from the zucchini balls. The salad was pretty good, though was slightly overdressed.

Mr Minx had the lamb souvlaki with Mediterranean fries (topped with pecorino and oregano) and more tzatziki. I loved the the touch of the grilled lemons. And the fries were fabulous. I'm not a big potato fan, and I am very picky when it comes to fries. These were crispy and golden and just lovely, and they came in a portion more than large enough to share.

I'm looking forward to going back. I want to try the shrimp souvlaki with feta cheese sauce and more of those fries. And the beet balls. I should probably try the spinach and feta pies, too, for research sake....

Souvlaki Greek Cuisine
1103 W 36th St
Baltimore, MD 21211
https://yoursouvlaki.com/

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Points South Latin Kitchen

Last week at a fun VIP party, we got a sneak peek at Bryson Keen's new Fells Point restaurant, Points South Latin Kitchen. One might remember Bryson from his 10 years as the very visible managing partner at Roy's Hawaiian Fusion, where he not only kept the place in tip top running order, but also led the very fun wine dinners that we attended from time to time. Bryson grew up around Latin cuisine; his grandmother owned a Tex-Mex restaurant in Fort Worth. We had high hopes for a fine eating experience at Points South, and our experience so far has been very good.

As we explored the newly revamped space (formerly home to both Meli and Anastasia) we enjoyed white and red sangria and selections from the restaurant's menu. Both kinds of pinchos, beef and shrimp, were among the passed appetizers that also included patacones (fried green plantain chips) topped with dollops of the Yucatecan toasted pumpkin seed dip known as Sikil Pak, and a meatless version of their carimanolas (yucca croquettes). Later, we were treated to a buffet that included grilled steak with Argentinean chimichurri, rice and beans, chicharrones of pork belly, and several salads.

We're hoping to go back sometime soon to have a real sit-down dinner and will keep you posted.



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Ejji Ramen

Baltimore is always a few (or more) years behind current restaurant trends; at least we are still unmatched in the crab cake department. The ramen craze has finally hit at long last and Ejji Ramen, in the Belvedere Square Market, is one of the first to do things right.

Ejji (sounds like and means "edgy") is not purely a Japanese restaurant, however. The owners, Oscar Lee and chef Ten Vong (whose families also own Chocolatea Cafe in Tuscany/Canterbury), are Malaysian and have incorporated Malaysian elements into their short menu of dumplings, skewered meats, and noodle soups. Mr Minx and I were invited to a media tasting in the week before Ejji's opening to get an idea of what their food was all about.

We started out with a sample of their gyoza, stuffed with cabbage, shiitakes, and smoked tofu. The fresh and delicate filling gets punched-up with a dip in a super garlicky sesame/soy sauce.

Next, we tasted their pork belly yakitori and both beef and chicken satay. The pork, cooked over traditional Japanese charcoal called binchotan, was pleasantly chewy and nicely seasoned. Shakers of sichimi togarashi (a spicy seasoning blend that includes red chile) were on hand to add a bit of heat to the pork, while the satay had a delicious lime-infused peanut sauce for dipping. The skewers of beef and chicken had been marinated in lemongrass, kaffir lime, ginger, and coconut milk and were flavorful even without the sauce. There were murmurs of dry chicken around the table, but mine was lovely.

Ejji offers three styles of ramen, which one can mix and match. Choose one broth, one noodle, any of thirteen toppings, and a sauce, to make the dish your very own, or order something from the predetermined menu.  We tasted all of the chef's house-made sauces, including two very spicy sambals in red and green, a puree of scallion and ginger, soy perfumed with yuzu, and a black sesame garlic soy. There are also shishito peppers pickled with fish sauce, which offers a milder heat than the sambals.

We sampled three styles of ramen. The first was Ejji's vegetarian version of a Hokkaido-style miso ramen. The rich noodle soup is customarily topped with sweet corn, but Ejji uses the corn in the broth itself, instead of pork. To mimic the fatty mouthfeel of pork-based stock, chef Vong uses butter, which works perfectly with corn. Our servings were topped with soft-boiled egg, enoki mushrooms, scallion, and a large piece of bamboo shoot. Of course, this being ramen, the star of the dish was the tangle of chewy, thick, curly ramen noodles. Ejji gets their noodles from Sun, a noodle manufacturer of some reknown based in Hawaii with a branch in New Jersey. (Consumers can buy Sun noodle products at HMart and Lotte.)

The second bowl of ramen we tried was made with the perhaps more-familiar tonkotsu broth. Making the broth is a two (or more) day process involving cleaning, boiling, rinsing, and more boiling of pork shin bones until they no longer leach out blood and create a nearly opaque milky broth. (Read about making tonkotsu broth at Serious Eats.) The rich stock was then ladled over thin curly ramen noodles and topped with cha siu pork, a miso egg, and slices of melt-in-your-mouth crispy pork belly.

The soups were so good, it was hard to stop eating them. Unfortunately, that meant we didn't have much room left for the final bowl, a laksa. Laksa is a Malaysian favorite, often made with coconut milk and, as with Ejji's version, curry. The broth had a shellfish base (clams and shrimp) and contained slices of clam, a fried shrimp, and spongy bean curd puffs and a sprinkling of katsuobushi (bonito flakes). The thicker curly ramen noodles were used in this dish (but you can order the laksa with more traditional rice noodles). This was the heartiest of the three soups we tasted and a bit on the sweet side due to the coconut milk. A big spoonful of spicy sambal added some brightness, as did a squeeze of the accompanying lime.

Ejji Ramen has been a long time coming. Lee and Vong had been planning the restaurant for two years, and personally, I think it was worth the wait. I predict the restaurant will be very popular in the cold months to come.




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Memorial Day Eats 2010

As usual, when we get out the grill, we go a little crazy with the amount of meat that gets cooked. The way I see it, why waste hot coals? Plus, there are usually between 2-4 hungry men in the house on any given holiday, so it's not like the food won't get eaten. And what doesn't get eaten on the day of cooking  means a respite from meal planning for at least a few days. In this case, it was a whole week!

Mr Minx wanted to give "beer can chicken" another go. He'd tried it once before but it just didn't work out, due to temperature, coal placement, and other grilling voodoo. This time, the grill was all about the chicken - hot coals on the sides, an empty drip pan in the center. We marinated the fowl overnight in a combination of Mexican Molé spice mix, paprika, brown sugar, salt, garlic, and onion powder. The next day, more of the molé seasoning went into a can of beer which got unceremoniously shoved into the bird's...cavity. It roasted for about an hour in a covered grill which reached an internal temperature of 350F or so. The result was a mahogany bird with crisp, spicy/sweet skin and succulent flesh. Oh, and I forgot to take a picture. Sorry! You'll just have to content yourselves with the sound of my lips smacking at the sweet memory.

We also marinated two big sirloin steaks, one in my favorite Steak Continental marinade, the other in some Cambodian Lemongrass Curry seasoning, grated lemongrass, garlic, and soy.

And there was a pound of shrimp in the freezer, so those went in a marinade of garlic, soy, and canola oil before being threaded onto skewers.

(Both steaks were cut into chunks for easy serving. The lighter meat at center bottom of the platter is the lemongrass marinated version.)

Can't forget the burgers and dogs! Mr Minx likes to put burgers on the grill first so their dripping fats can get the coals burning hot - so much better than using tons of lighter fluid. And the dogs were actually Buffalo Chicken-flavored chicken sausages that we picked up at Wegman's (that place is soooo dangerous!).

In addition to the meaty goodness, we also grilled portobello mushrooms and made two kinds of slaw (Quick-and-Dirty Kimchee and a version with honey mustard mayo), potato salad with Romesco sauce, and a grilled Caesar salad with creamy Caesar dressing and home-made croutons.

Either it was too much food or our guests were just plain too polite to eat much. Probably the former. It certainly wasn't because the flavor was lacking - I have to admit that everything turned out extremely well, and I was happy to eat various leftovers during the week.

What did you cook for the holiday, if anything?